Word: memoed
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...Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld to produce a grand bargain with the recalcitrants - France, Germany, Russia - that would involve increased military and financial participation by the allies in return for U.N. supervision of the transition to a new government. Baker, I am told, was furious over the Pentagon memo that limited reconstruction contracts in Iraq to countries that had been part of the "coalition of the willing." He insisted on speaking directly with the President to secure a full range of negotiating options for his trip - including reconstruction contracts - before he left for Europe...
...limbers up, firing questions at aides, wondering aloud, What am I gonna get asked? These pregame warm-ups, a former aide explained, are designed to get him in the mood to match wits with reporters and "are as much about psychology as content." Few believe his "long, hard slog" memo of October--in which he frankly warned of a much more difficult war on terrorism and his concern that Washington was still poorly organized to fight it--was leaked without his O.K. Many think it was written to put him on the right side of history in case he departs...
Even if you accept the memo's argument that "limiting competition for prime contracts will encourage the expansion of international cooperation in Iraq" (in other words, war naysayers have to join the occupation if they hope to fully cash in) "and in future efforts" (what future efforts, by the way?), its timing was idiotic. Wolfowitz's findings were posted on a Pentagon website just as President Bush was phoning other heads of state to ask them to give a fair hearing to former Secretary of State James Baker III, whom Bush has just deputed to help renegotiate Iraq's hefty...
...Pentagon choose to alienate major allies just now? Why didn't the Administration use a stiletto rather than a bludgeon, quietly handing out prime contracts to its friends without yelling about it? As always, you can explain things as a conspiracy or a screwup. In the first view, the memo is the latest proof that the Pentagon is running its own foreign policy and simply doesn't care whether it ticks off people in foreign capitals--in fact, rather enjoys doing so. Maybe I've got a case of seasonal goodwill, but I doubt that things are so crass...
GLOBAL AGENDA: The baffling Wolfowitz memo...